Good things come in three — like the three antacids that for the 52 weeks ended April 17 collectively generated more than $118 million in sales on top of the sales base they had established in the year-ago period.

GlaxoSmithKline has garnered strong interest in its portfolio of legacy brands that were placed on the sales block earlier this year, according to a Reuters report published Tuesday. And that interest is likely to pick up in the coming months, GSK CEO Andrew Witty told reporters during a meeting of pharmaceutical industry executives.

It’s not often a niche brand manufacturer attempts to resuscitate what has been for years a commoditized category. But that’s exactly what Meda Consumer Healthcare will be attempting to do with iron — establish a good/better/best proposition to a supplemented category best defined as mediocre.

Companies that make vaccines, drugs and diagnostic tests for influenza will become key stakeholders in the World Health Organization’s Global Influenza Surveillance Network under an agreement reached at the Open Ended Working Group that WHO coordinated to support global preparedness for a future influenza pandemic.

Duh, winning! Because there are no losers in this. GlaxoSmithKline will be able to funnel its extensive marketing dollars into a stable of poised-to-explode brands, niche marketers can take those brands being sold and breathe fresh marketing life into them and retailers now benefit most of all because a greater portfolio of brands are being marketed with gusto.

GlaxoSmithKline on Thursday identified the remaining noncore over-the-counter brands that it intends to divest as the company focuses its Consumer Healthcare business around a portfolio of fast-growing priority brands and emerging markets.

A point-of-sale safety check may reduce the risk of patients unsafely receiving a drug for Type 2 diabetes that may increase their risk of heart attack, according to a new study conducted by pharmacy benefit manager Prime Therapeutics and scheduled for presentation at the 23rd annual meeting of the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy in Minneapolis.

Four-in-5 menthol smokers would quit if the Food and Drug Administration banned mentholated cigarettes, according to a survey conducted this month with sponsorship from GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare.

Members of the Consumer Healthcare Products Association last week elected Paul Sturman, president and general manager of Pfizer Consumer Healthcare, to chair the association’s board, the association announced Monday.

SPECIAL REPORTS

It’s done. A hearing aid category specific to the over-the-counter arena was signed into law in August; all that remains to be created is the regulatory framework. Read more in this special report. Read more...

IN THIS ISSUE

Drug Store News examines the biggest trends in the private label space; offers an update on the generics market; spotlights the biggest OTC trends; finds out how influencers are being used by beauty brands; and much more!Read more...